Baby Chakraborty, KalimNews, June 15, 2025, Kolkata : Sudeep Banerjee has informed that this time the poster of the July 21 rally will have only the face of Supremo Mamata Banerjee. There will be no picture of the All India General Secretary.
The Trinamool Congress has called for preparations for the July 21 rally on Saturday. In response to questions from journalists, MP Sudeep Banerjee said, “The poster of the July 21 program has been given on a pen drive from the Camac Street office. There is only Mamata Banerjee’s picture there.” At the same time, he said, “Abhishek himself said that he was not in the July 21 program. That is why only the Chief Minister’s picture will be there. Mamata’s picture was also in the Netaji Indoor meeting. The Chief Minister has repeatedly said that she is the last word of the organization. She will lead the party for another ten years.”
Did the leader want to emphasize once again that Mamata alone has the final say in the party?
The Trinamool Congress has decided that only the image of party supremo Mamata Banerjee will feature on all official posters for the July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally, as national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee has opted out, stating he wasn’t part of the original movement in 1993.
The decision of Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew and widely regarded as the party’s second-in-command, to opt out of the poster has raised eyebrows across political circles, sparking speculation about internal party dynamics.
Senior TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay confirmed the move on Saturday following a meeting held at the party’s Bhabanipur office here. “The poster for the July 21 rally contains only Mamata Banerjee’s photograph. Abhishek Banerjee himself said his photo should not be there as he was not part of the original movement in 1993,” Bandyopadhyay, the party’s leader in Lok Sabha, told reporters.
According to party leaders, Banerjee entered politics as a member of the TMC in 2011 and was eventually made the president of Trinamool Yuva, which was later merged with Trinamool Youth Congress.
The announcement comes amid a history of intra-party debates over the prominence of leaders in posters. The controversy dates back to November 2023 when only Mamata’s image featured in the background of a major rally at Netaji Indoor Stadium. At that time, party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh had publicly questioned the omission of Abhishek’s image, stirring internal debates.
Earlier this year, the issue flared up again over a TMC calendar distributed among various party offices. Abhishek’s image was subsequently omitted from major party events, including the February rally at Netaji Indoor Stadium.
“This time, we aim for a record-breaking turnout. We will set a benchmark for how a single party can organise such a massive rally in the heart of a city,” Bandyopadhyay said, adding that party leaders, including state president Subrata Bakshi, have issued clear directives to district units to ensure maximum mobilisation.
The July 21 ‘Martyrs Day’ rally is observed annually by TMC to commemorate the killing of 13 people in police firing in 1993, when Mamata Banerjee, then a Youth Congress leader, had launched a march to the secretariat, demanding that voters’ card be made the sole document to allow people to exercise their franchise.
Amid preparations for the rally, another political subplot unfolded on Saturday as two heavyweight leaders from Birbhum, Anubrata Mondal and Kajal Sheikh, were asked to attend a closed-door meeting with top TMC leaders. Both leaders have been embroiled in a factional feud in the politically volatile Birbhum district. While Kajal Sheikh arrived earlier, Anubrata — popularly known as ‘Kesto’ — joined the meeting shortly before 1 PM.